The ancient Egyptians maintained that the sun was propelled across the heavens by means of a scarab, or sacred beetle. With the passing of time, the Egyptians
created a series of amulets in the form of this beetle in a great variety of materials, and these were routinely provided with inscriptions in hieroglyphs conveniently accommodated to their stylized flat bottoms.
This amulet in the form of a scarab is one of several Egyptian variations on the theme. The body of the beetle is stylized to the extent that the details of the head, plate, and clypeus are confined to a single zone and rely on a few ornamentally incised strokes for their articulation.
The base of our scarab is divided into three vertical zones, the center of which contains a cartouche, or royal ring, with three hieroglyphs spelling the personal name, Men-kheper-Re. To the left, with wings outstretched in a gesture of protection is a serpent associated with two hieroglyphs forming the formulaic phrase, “true of voice,” which habitually accompanies the name of the deceased in funerary contexts. To the right are a series of hieroglyphs which may be translated as, “the Good God, the Lord of the Two Lands.”
The dating of our scarab depends upon the interpretation of the proper name, Men-kheper-Re. Although this name is attested as the prenomen of Tuthmosis III of Dynasty XVIII, the orthography of the hieroglyphs with which this name is written is not exacting. This observation and the funerary character of the phrase to the left suggest a dating into the Third Intermediate Period, when a petty ruler, also named Men-kheper-Re, ruled and scarabs so inscribed were exceedingly common.
References:
J. von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen (Mainz 1999), pages182-183, for the cartouches of this Men-kheper-re; and K. A. Kitchen, The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (Warminster 1973), pages 2, 12, 13, passim, for an historical account of this ruler.
